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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Students
of the 21st century are looking to expand their horizons beyond classroom
learning.

Youngsters
speak on how various co-curricular and extra-curricular activities helped them
learn pertinent lessons in life

SHALMALI TAKANE,
Dance
Dance is a creative form of expression. And thus,
people of all age groups are inspired by dance and the lessons it teaches.
Dance indeed is an art that inspires.
Among the many lessons that I learned from dance are
patience, grace, expression and creativity. Dancing regularly, not only helps
you keep fit, but also makes you patient. As a student of dance, it takes
consistent effort and time to learn a certain dance form. For experts in the
field, it is equally important to be patient since every dance form, to be
enjoyed, needs to be complete, accurate and perfect. Thus, being patient is one
of the most important lessons that dance has taught me.
It is said that a dance form brings grace to a dancer,
and in turn, a dancer brings grace to the dance form. As a person, it is the
grace of a dance form that inspires me to dance. Dance and grace are
inter-related be it classical dance (Bharat Natyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Odissi
or Kathakali) or western dance (salsa, jazz, hip hop, hard dance, and punk).
Like every finger print is distinct, so is every
dancer. This idea is evident by the expression each dancer portrays. It is
through expressions that a dancer portrays his/ her feelings to connect with
the audience. Irrespective of the dance form, it is the expression of a dancer
that makes a performance worth the watch. Not many of us express what we feel,
and it is dance that has taught me to express, whatever the situation may be.
Last, but not the least, dance has taught me to think
creatively. Creativity is the key to style. An important lesson learned is that
new options, whether in a dance form or in life, is to explore and create
constantly. Learning dance is a lifelong process.
With dance, comes an opportunity to be creative
throughout one’s life. While every person has different learnings from dance,
for me, these are the most important of them all.

YASH MISHRA,
Gap year ‘Lost
black sheep’ and ‘too afraid to take any competitive examinations’ was what I
was labeled as towards the end of my class XII board exams when I told people
that I would be taking a gap year. However, attending end of school parties,
watching sitcoms and preparing for the advanced placement tests could only
distract me for so long. As I struggled with the underlying feelings of
uncertainty, I got an opportunity to intern with this newspaper. Not only did
the experience uplift my résumé, but it also gave me the chance to gain a
plethora of knowledge about writing and journalism and make new friends.
Furthermore, I learnt that taking a mere hobby to the next level and making it
a more significant experience isn’t really complicated as long as you have
enough passion. With this new-found belief, I applied for a research project at
IIT- Varanasi (BHU) and got through. A gap year doesn’t have to be a lonely
struggle or steep ascension towards your dream college. On the contrary, it is
an adventure, where you are free to explore innumerable options; where no path
is wrong but merely different than the other! During my research at IIT B, I
learnt about bioengineering. It is a vast, upcoming field that offers the best
of both worlds and involves a variety of work ranging from developing biofuels
and vaccines to genetic engineering. After working on a rudimentary research
project in the field, I found my calling.
The IITs are, without any doubt, some of the best
institutes in India and my parents had always wanted me to study at an IIT.
However to be who you are truly meant to be and fulfill your potential, you
have to break old barriers and conquer new frontiers. Financing an overseas
education would be a daunting challenge for my family and it took several days
of convincing, arguing, and some family drama to finally get my parents’ support.
Later, to everyone’s shock, I stopped going for JEE
coaching and began working on another research project in the field of cancer
and decided to dedicate my gap year to cancer. With some difficulty, I managed
to become an observing intern at the Radiation Oncology Department of a city
based hospital. Here I got to write for a medical journal and learn about the
technology used in cancer treatment. It was an invaluable experience.
Furthermore, I joined an NGO that helps cancer patients. With my life revolving
around cancer, I was overcome by the realisation of the brevity of life, and
how it’s never too late to fulfill all your whims and fantasies. In a way my
education only began once school ended.
I also had the pleasure of going on an all expense paid
trip to Abu Dhabi, sponsored by New York University, where a selected group of
applicants got to attend sample lectures, go sight-seeing, meet the Ex-British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and young leaders from over 30 nations, across the
globe. Upon getting overwhelmed by such diversity, I began to fully comprehend
and appreciate the social and cultural differences between fellow human beings.
My gap year has truly been an amazing journey: the most
significant year of my life. And I’ve still got three months of endless
possibilities left!

ASHLEY OSTRIDGE,
Internship in India As a part
of my master’s degree in international management at the Ivey School of
Business, Canada, I am currently interning for the hospitality brand of a well-known
corporate group. The lessons I have learned extend past my internship and begun
the day I arrived in Delhi, over two months ago. Driving in rickshaws through
the congested streets, observing the industrial activity in Dharavi slum, and
capturing the beauty of the Taj Mahal, I began to understand the importance of
culture, religion, and relationships in the day-to-day lives of Indians. I
wondered how culture and religion would play into my internship and sought the
advice of consultants from various companies to see if they could give amount
of disparity that exists beany insights on working in India. tween social and
economic class-The diversity in their opinions es, this idea of contradictions
beclosely resembled the diversity in came apparent. In Goa and surthe Indian
culture. One piece of rounding villages, I met inspiring advice they all shared
is that In- social entrepreneurs dedicated to dia operates at its own pace.
Ini- tacking this disparity. From Aktially, I attempted to force things shaya Patra
– a kitchen that serves the way I wanted and expected lunch to 800 schools
including them to work. I quickly realised 1,80,000 children every afternoon –
that this is a country where you to clean-drinking water initiahave to be
flexible and lose rigid tives, bio-fuel operations, and orexpectations.
Teamwork has ganic farming, each individual is
played a vital role as I work heavily dedicated and
engaged in closely with my team members their community and positively and our
clients. Through this, I impacts their surroundings. I had have become
increasingly aware firsthand experience in seeing of my strengths and
weaknesses how one person can affect the and value the importance of dele-
lives of hundreds of others. This gation and the division of tasks. has
definitely inspired me to be-Through this experience, I feel come more engaged
in my comthat I have enhanced my manage- munity back in Canada. ment and
leadership skills, along I will miss the rich Indian curwith my ability to
adapt to this ries and spices, the chaotic streets, new situation. the
traditions and culture. Howev-The first thing I was told by my er, I look
forward to returning tour guide when I arrived in Delhi home where I can bring
new inis that India is a land of contradic- sights that I have gained from my
tions. After witnessing the experience.

SHONOTTRA KUMAR
Model United Nations As a
fourth year student of law, I've had the opportunity to attend a couple of
Model United Nations (MUN). The last one I attended was the Mumbai MUN
organised by Mukesh Patel College of Engineering and TSEC last year. I
participate in such events hoping to learn more about international politics
and inter-state relations at the United Nations Organisation (UNO). What I
gathered from my experience was that MUNs are stipulated meetings of students
from all fields posing to be delegates of different nations addressing the
problems of the world at large, thus allowing young minds to come up with
constructive solutions by way of working papers in each committee. At this
particular MUN, I was the delegate of an African country, Sierra Leone, at the
Social and Humanitarian Council (SOCHUM). The main agenda of the council was to
address problems in African countries such as mining. The topics to be discussed
are given much in advance so that students can research their allotted
country's stand in the international sphere. This allows students to read
further about different countries other than their own, and learn more about
international politics and current affairs. This helps keep the students
updated about the conditions worldwide. It is as if the world government is
sitting in a classroom and deciding the
fate of the people everywhere. MUNs not only allow you
to step into the shoes of a foreign diplomat, but also let you voice your own
opinions about the topic at hand.
However, on the one hand a MUN is a pragmatic approach
for students interested in learning in depth about international relations, on
the other, such an opportunity if not organised seriously can turn out to be a
waste of time. For instance, the delegates of SOCHUM decided to pass a 'Motion
of entertainment' for the chair to dance ona popular Hindi song! At the end of
the second day, the chair of SOCHUM realised that we had failed as a committee,
so he forced the delegates to pass a working paper which didn’t make any sense.
This could have been a platform to discuss the problems of trafficking, child
labour, arms conflict, etc faced by African countries and come up with constructive
solutions, but unfortunately proved to be a futile effort. This would not only
help students to think about such problems but also motivate them to work
towards it or to do something about them in the future.
Despite such unfortunate organisational disasters, on a
larger scale, MUNs can prove to be a very important learning experience for
students beyond their regular academics.

SAHIL PHULL, ACTOR
Theatre After
completing my graduation at an engineering college two years ago, I am now focusing
on a career in acting and production. I am half way through an intensive acting
workshop developed by SDDS in collaboration with the Victorian College of the
Arts (VCA), University of Melbourne. Such courses are excellent for actors who
want to develop and learn the craft of acting and devote time to invest in
their passion but can’t take up a full-time programme. It is even better to be
able to study acting with an international focus and world renowned teachers.
Though intensive courses are demanding and challenging, they force a student to
give it their 100% each day. This has given me a very different way to approach
acting including text, breathing techniques and dealing with stage fright. I
have realised that the most realistic and believable performances, which appear
simple, are the ones that require hard work. Working with other batch mates,
who are talented and committed to and passionate about acting, has also given
me new energy. I am very sure that my experience of the workshop will greatly
aid me in my auditions in the future. Furthermore, since theatre, as a medium,
inculcates skills such as discipline, trust and teamwork the lessons I learnt
here will help me in other aspects of life too.

SAGAR SUTRALE
Moot court The Indian
law education system is purely theoretical. Students, once out of college, do
not have sufficient practical experience or knowledge. It, thus, becomes
difficult for them to adapt to the legal environment, and hence it takes them
years to succeed in the industry. Educational institutes thus introduced moot
court sessions that allow students to draft and plead before the dummy court. A
moot court is an artificial set up of an actual court that consists of a bench
of judges, a witness box and a relevant case.
Theoretically, students get an opportunity to
strengthen their arguments skills, build a researched case and fight it in the
presence of judges. This, not only gives them a real-time court experience, but
also makes them confident. Apart from the theoretical lessons learned, students
participating in a moot court learn a number of life lessons. Using legal terms
in the court room is important, but being ethical while fighting the case is
important too. Participating in a moot court helps students respect the ethics
of the profession. As a student of law, I learned that winning a case is
important, but equally important is winning it ethically. The next lesson
learned is that of perseverance and patience. As a lawyer, it is important to
practice the same in court and outside. Every case that a lawyer takes up is
different; some may take years to defend, while others may be simple. Moot
courts taught me to stand by my word and be patient until the final verdict is
announced. Time management is another crucial lesson that moot courts teach.
Whether it is reaching on time for a session, or submitting legal documents in
time, good time management is what contributes to a lawyer’s success. A good
draft is the key to a successfully fought case. And to present a good draft,
one needs excellent communication and soft skills. While good communication
skills help you compile a good draft, soft skills help you present the case
well in the court. Putting across a point while fighting a case is important;
equally important is to do it the right way. Soft skills also play an important
role in maintaining professional relations. Every law student should
participate in moot courts to know the nitty gritties of the profession, as
well as to learn life lessons that the court teaches you.

The
effervescence of sparkling wines complements strong flavours Indians
prefer. That they are served cold only enhances the appeal in warm climes

What do
Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela have in common — apart from the obvious?
Their choice of bubbly libation after their historic election victories, of
course. It was not champagne but a non-vintage sparkler from South Africa’s
Western Cape region, called Graham Beck Brut NV. Naturally, its US sales
zoomed soon after.
Last month, Sommelier India decided to launch the
Women’s Wine Circle in New Delhi with organic Ti Amo Prosecco rather than a
champagne. It turned out to be an inspired choice. The ladies — as is their
wont — loved the light lusciousness of the flavour as much as the light
lure of the price tag. And there was no lightheadedness even after several
glasses! When in Doubt... When it comes to value for money, there is indeed nothing to beat a
carefully selected sparkling wine, even if sheer familiarity with names
prompts people to veer towards Moët et Chandon or Louis Roederer. The
latter are great choices, but since I believe in the axiom, ‘When in doubt,
go for sparkling’, only grande marques can prove to be an expensive habit!
Even the most diehard champagne evangelists (and I
do know
several!) agree it is better to choose a good sparkling wine than bad
champagne, in case the best-known labels are unavailable. Getting them to
admit that there is such a thing as bad champagne at all is tough, but they
do exist and cause that inevitable headache or acidity après coup….
Though standard non-vintage grand marque labels are safe bets, there is
sparkle beyond champagne, even in France. The very existence of cremant or
mousseux sparkling wines, in fact, points to the popularity of this style,
though production methods may differ. There is clearly something
irresistible about fizzy drinks — alcoholic or otherwise. Attention to Detail The effervescence of good sparkling wines complements most of the
strong flavours we Indians prefer, regardless of cuisine. That they are
served cold only enhances their appeal in our predominantly warm climes.
Perfectly chilled bubbly is a far better idea than ice cubes in tepid white
or red wine — an unfortunate ‘trend’ that has vocal supporters in the west
and India.
Being something of a purist, I baulk at the idea of quaffing copious
amounts of say, a Salon Le Mesnil or even Dom Perignon, with a slap-up
Indian or Chinese meal even if I could afford it. Their complexities
deserve greater attention. If the idea were to drink something with food
from these culinary regions, I would always go for a good sparkling wine.
And there are a
whole lot of reasonably priced bubblies out there; enough of them, in fact,
to bolster the idea that they are not only for “occasions”. There’s
Prosecco, Asti, Franciacorta and red Lambrusco from Italy, Sekt from
Germany and Cava from Spain, the last of which I was reintroduced to
recently at the Spanish embassy in New Delhi.
The major New World wine producing areas also have
their versions, from ‘California Champagne’ to South Africa’s Methode Cap
Classique sparklers, besides Australia’s fizzies from Tasmania and the
Yarra Valley, and South American bubblies. Interest in them is somewhat
academic here in India due to availability, but keep them in mind when
travelling abroad.
The charm of going beyond the classic Champenois
combination of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with a dash of Pinot Meunier lies
in the fact that other grapes form the backbone of sparkling wines, which
means a more diverse flavour profile. Also, the all-important second
fermentation for the bubbles is often done in the vats rather than in
bottles. Sweetness Test Prosecco is made from a grape of the same name (also called Glera),
Asti from the Moscato Bianco, Sekt from Riesling and other varietals and
Spanish Cava from Macabeo, Parellada and Xarello grapes. Interestingly,
Franciacorta from Italy uses the same three grapes as champagne but soil
and climate variations ensure a very different sparkling wine!
That said, all sparkling wines are graded according
to an ascending order of sweetness: Brut Natural, Brut, Extra Dry, Sec,
Demi-Sec and Doux. Natural is the driest — which means no sugar or dosage
was added after the yeast sediment was disgorged from the bottle. At the
other end of the scale, Doux can have more than 50 gm of residual sugar per
litre!
Sparkling wine, including champagne, used to be
mostly sweet in the early days to mask acidic undertones. The current reign
of the dry ‘Brut’ bubbly, however, can be ascribed to the preference of the
British market for that less sugary style and ultimately the world has
followed suit.
At about 94,000 cases, the sparkling wines market
in India is still minuscule, and we have our Omar Khayyam, Sula Brut and
more. But what more endorsement of the growing popularity of sparkling wine
can there be than the fact that champagne biggie Moet-Hennessy will launch
its ‘Indian’ bubbly Chandon from Nashik this year?
• Bubbly-quette
Wash well and wipe glasses dry. Any residue on the insides of the glass
will result in the bubbles dissipating faster, making it go flat. Store
sparkling wine in a wine cellar. For that optimum serving chill, put the
bottle in the fridge for 30 minutes & then immerse in a bucket of water
& ice in a 50:50 ratio. Don’t pour bubbly like beer, i.e. holding the
glass and bottle at angles to each other. The glass should be upright, and
the bubbly poured gently and in stages Don’t pour only half a glass — this
is a sparkling wine, not a still wine. Flutes should be 3/4 full and cups
2/3 full at least Never hold a champagne glass by the bowl – the stem is
there for a reason Don’t ‘nurse’ a single glass for a prolonged time — it
will become flat and warm, two singularly bubblyunfriendly states

A
new all-solid lithium-sulfur battery developed by an Oak Ridge National
Laboratory team led by Chengdu Liang has the potential to reduce cost, increase
performance and improve safety compared with existing designs. Photo: Oak Ridge
National LaboratoryScientists at the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE)'s Oak Ridge
National Laboratory (ORNL) have designed and tested an all-solid lithium-sulfur
battery with approximately four times the energy density of conventional
lithium-ion technologies that power today's electronics.

"Our
approach is a complete change from the current battery concept of two
electrodes joined by a liquid electrolyte, which has been used over the last
150 to 200 years," says Chengdu Liang, lead author on the ORNL study
published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Scientists
have been excited about the potential of lithium-sulfur batteries for decades,
but long-lasting, large-scale versions for commercial applications have proven
elusive. Researchers were stuck with a catch-22 created by the battery's use of
liquid electrolytes: On one hand, the liquid helped conduct ions through the
battery by allowing lithium polysulfide compounds to dissolve. The downside,
however, was that the same dissolution process caused the battery to
prematurely break down.

The ORNL team overcame these
barriers by first synthesizing a never-before-seen class of sulfur-rich
materials that conduct ions as well as the lithium metal oxides conventionally
used in the battery's cathode. Liang's team then combined the new sulfur-rich
cathode and a lithium anode with a solid electrolyte material, also developed
at ORNL, to create an energy-dense, all-solid battery.

The new ionically conductive cathode
enabled the ORNL battery to maintain a capacity of 1200 milliamp-hours (mAh)
per gram after 300 charge-discharge cycles at 60 C. For comparison, a
traditional lithium-ion battery cathode has an average capacity between 140 to
170 mAh/g. Because lithium-sulfur batteries deliver about half the voltage of
lithium-ion versions, this eight-fold increase in capacity demonstrated in the
ORNL battery cathode translates into four times the gravimetric energy density
of lithium-ion technologies, explains Liang.

The team's all-solid design also
increases battery safety by eliminating flammable liquid electrolytes that can
react with lithium metal. Chief among the ORNL battery's other advantages is
its use of elemental sulfur, a plentiful industrial byproduct of petroleum
processing.

"Sulfur is practically
free," Liang says. "Not only does sulfur store much more energy than
the transition metal compounds used in lithium-ion battery cathodes, but a
lithium-sulfur device could help recycle a waste product into a useful
technology."

Although the team's new battery is
still in the demonstration stage, Liang and his colleagues hope to see their
research move quickly from the laboratory into commercial applications. A
patent on the team's design is pending.

"This project represents a
synergy between basic science and applied research," Liang says. "We
used fundamental research to understand a scientific phenomenon, identified the
problem and then created the right material to solve that problem, which led to
the success of a device with real-world applications."

CEOs
are stepping up to a new role, as leaders of their company’s thinking and
behavior.

It is striking to see how many chief
executives see their most important responsibility as being the leader of the
company’s culture. According to Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM, “Culture is your
company’s number one asset.” Her counterpart at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, has
said, “Everything I do is a reinforcement or not of what we want to have happen
culturally.” In another typical remark from the C-suite, Starbucks
Corporation CEO Howard Schultz has written that “so much of what Starbucks
achieved was because of [its employees] and the culture they fostered.”
Researchers such as former Harvard Business School professors John Kotter and
James Heskett have also found consistent correlation between robust, engaged
cultures and high-performance business results (as described in their book, Corporate
Culture and Performance [Free Press, 1992]). But most business leaders
don’t need that evidence; they’ve seen plenty of correlation in their own
workplace every day.

Recognizing the importance of
culture in business is not the same thing as being an effective cultural chief
executive. The CEO is the most visible leader in a company. His or her direct
engagement in all facets of the company’s culture can make an enormous
difference, not just in how people feel about the company, but in how they
perform. Schultz described the CEO’s role this way in his book Onward: How
Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul (Rodale Books, 2012):
“Like crafting the perfect cup of coffee, creating an engaging,
respectful, trusting workplace culture is not the result of any one thing. It’s
a combination of intent, process, and heart, a trio that must
constantly be fine-tuned.”

A company’s culture is the
collection of self-sustaining patterns of behaving, feeling, thinking, and believing,
the patterns that determine “the way we do things around here.” At its best, an
organization’s culture is an immense source of value. It enables, energizes,
and enhances its employees and thus fosters ongoing high performance. At its
worst, the culture can be a drag on productivity and emotional commitment,
undermining long-term success. Most companies are so large and complex that the
culture acts in both ways at once. Indeed, the culture of a large company is
typically made up of several interwoven subcultures, all affecting and
responding to one another.

If you are the chief executive of a
company that is sailing with the wind and leading in its competitive race,
that’s a sign that your culture is in sync with your strategy. This makes your
company much more likely to deliver consistent and attractive profitability and
growth results. You can tell you have such a culture because people are
confident and energized. They can justifiably take pride in the results of
their work. As CEO, your role is to keep the ship on course and ahead of the
competition. This requires generating regular behavioral reminders about the
values, aspirations, and engagements that underlie your company’s success and
reinforce its strategy.

However, if your company is heading
into stormy waters, facing the kinds of disruptive competition or unexpected
market changes that affect every industry sooner or later, then a program of
normal reinforcing leadership won’t cut it. A culture that no longer aligns
with your strategic and performance priorities needs a lot more attention—from
you and other senior leaders.

Many CEOs understand in principle
that cultures are multidimensional, slow to change, and troublesome to
control—and thus that influencing them requires care and thoughtful engagement.
This is particularly true for global companies led by people of diverse
backgrounds. When confronted with a cultural challenge in real life, however,
chief executives tend to forget this principle. Instead, they revert to
conventional managerial tactics, but with more rigor. They turn up the volume
on the inspirational messages. They raise the bar and set stretch goals with
new statements of the vision, mission, values, and purpose of the company. They
bear down on costs and castigate people for complacency. They may also see
culture change as primarily a functional responsibility, to be delegated to
experts, either inside or outside the company. More often than not, these
approaches leave the deeply embedded cultural behaviors largely unchanged. Only
an enlightened CEO can break through that kind of cultural inertia.

A better starting point is a
realistic recognition of the culture’s current status. No company’s collective
practices and beliefs are all good or all bad. They have evolved over time for
understandable reasons—often to deal with the challenges or malfunctions of the
past. Moreover, they are firmly entrenched in mind-sets and habits. Therefore,
it is essential to be rigorously selective and disciplined in dealing with
cultural issues. There are several things you can do from your highly visible
position at the top of the hierarchy to spark and foster the cultural
realignments you want to see:

Demonstrate positive urgency by focusing on your
company’s aspirations—its unfulfilled potential—rather than on any
impending crisis.

Pick a critical few behaviors that exemplify the best
of your company and culture, and that you want everyone to adopt. Set an
example by visibly adopting a couple of these behaviors yourself.

Balance your appeals to the company to include both
rational and emotional cues.

Make the change sustainable by maintaining vigilance on
the few critical elements that you have established as important.

In all this activity, avoid
delegating your culture-oriented actions. Do as much as you can yourself.

The
Power of Positive Urgency

Time and again, we hear executives
cite the importance of having a “burning platform”—a stress-producing crisis,
whether externally driven or self-induced—to incite a high-performance culture.
We once observed a CEO incur several hundred million dollars of unnecessary
debt for the sole purpose of creating a sense of urgency for his culture change
effort. For many years, we too subscribed to the conventional wisdom that
burning platforms were the only way to obtain cultural impact. But no longer.

Certainly we understand the logic
that underlies this point of view: Companies full of complacent people will
rouse themselves only in response to crisis. But experience and common sense
argue differently. Consider what people on real burning platforms do. They
escape. They barely have time to act, much less change their mind-sets and
habits with a view toward long-term success. In the business equivalent, which
usually involves a rapid drain of cash and profitability, your options will be
similarly limited—in this case, to layoffs, plant closures, responses to the
press and investors, and other forms of damage control. Like BP’s recovery
efforts after the Deepwater Horizon spill, Toyota’s after the Fukushima disaster,
or any plant shutdown made in response to a sudden loss of business, these
traumatic activities are typically seen as a one-time event, not as a way of
building for the future.

There is a much better way to
overcome complacency. As a CEO or senior executive, the greatest thing you can
do is to marshal an authentic sense of urgency, but not one built solely on the
logical reasons that change is necessary. Rather, build an emotional sense of
urgency, focusing on the values that the company cares about collectively: its
way of serving customers, its desire for growth and success, its positive
impact on social and community issues, and the attraction and welcome that
people felt when they first arrived.

Every sustainable company culture is
based, in part, on this intrinsic attraction to the work—including the way it
challenges people. At some point, your employees chose to be part of the
enterprise. For the most part, they liked (or loved) their profession, they
felt they could excel, and they wanted to gain the personal benefits of
accomplishment. As CEO, you need to capitalize on those feelings, give them
voice, and encourage people to spread them virally throughout the company. This
may mean discarding some businesses that don’t fit your strategy, your capabilities,
or your culture. But it will also mean helping people expand (or recapture) the
pride they have felt, all along, in their collective strength.

The
Right Behaviors

To help people capitalize on the
best aspects of your culture, you have to focus attention on the critical few
behaviors that you believe matter most. These are a few positive sources of
energy, pride, and interactions that, when nurtured and spread to scale, will
improve company performance significantly. As simple as it sounds, this approach
will not only accelerate the behavior change that matters most, but also evolve
and align your culture more effectively than forcing a major and potentially
disruptive culture change effort on a broadly diverse global organization.

These actions are ideally small but
repetitive and demonstrably significant. They signal where the company is going
now. For example, early in the General Motors Company (GM) bankruptcy recovery
effort of 2009, interim CEO Fritz Henderson and a handful of his senior executives
launched a series of informal conversations with frontline leaders, skipping
all the levels of the hierarchy in between. These examples triggered dozens of
imitations, including conversations with customers, among GM employees across
North America. Similarly, during a turnaround at the Mobil Corporation in the
mid-1990s, then CEO Lucio Noto and five of his senior leaders personally
conducted career appraisals of people at various levels whom they saw as
“managerial bench strength.” This inspired similar assessment efforts
throughout the company. Southwest Airlines, for its part, has continually
singled out the same three behaviors: hiring people who connect emotionally
with customers and colleagues, volunteering when help is needed at any level,
and frugality to the extreme.

Unfortunately, there is no magic
formula for finding the right few behaviors that will make a difference in your
culture. There are, however, some factors to consider.

First, it is essential to emulate at
least some of these emerging key behaviors yourself—to be a living model of the
culture you aspire to lead. People pay rapt attention to what the CEO does, not
just what the CEO says. You can’t rely on communications, no matter how
inspiring. You, and ideally a few other senior leaders, have to step out by
behaving in new ways that both capitalize on elements in the current culture
and demonstrate a key shift in cultural alignment.

No two senior leaders are alike;
what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another. So do not seek to
revamp your leadership philosophy, style, or personality to fit anyone else’s
idea of what a leader should be. Instead, as former Campbell Soup Company CEO
Douglas Conant put it, “It’s hard for leaders to realize that it’s not about
showing up ‘the way I think I’m supposed to show up.’ It’s about showing up in a way that is
‘authentically me’ and can be helpful” (see “The Thought Leader Interview: Douglas Conant,” by Art Kleiner, s+b, Autumn 2012, with
video interview by Jon Katzenbach [online only]; the videos are embedded on
this page, below).

When Conant first arrived as CEO at
Campbell’s, the company was beleaguered by poor quality and newly fierce
competitors; he was hired to turn the company around. He knew he was not a
master of social conviviality. “Every time I take a Myers-Briggs test,” said
Conant, “it shows I’m an introvert.” He knew it would not be easy for him to
interact comfortably with a diversity of people throughout the organization,
but he had to find a way to do it.

At the time, the Campbell’s “people
strategy” emphasized employee health, using an American Heart Association
program that encouraged people to walk 10,000 steps every day. So Conant began
donning a track suit and pedometer and running around the headquarters building
complex in Camden, N.J., every day. Because of his constantly changing
schedule, he ran at different times every day, and he made a point of running
through different parts of the complex. People never knew when they would see
him jogging nearby, but they always knew the reason—he wasn’t checking up on
them, he was just getting his 10,000 steps in. This practice gave an introvert
a highly visible, easy way to interact informally with people he would
otherwise see only at formal meetings, and Conant’s running soon slowed to a
walk. “It got to the point where I was so comfortable that people weren’t
afraid of approaching me,” he said. He eventually dubbed this practice
“management by wandering around.”

You do not need very many senior
leaders to start a few critical behaviors rolling through the company. Get
several well-known executives to step away from the norms of the past with you.
People throughout the workforce will rapidly take notice and do the same,
creating an atmosphere of approval and support. In short, by seeking out other
early adopters of these behaviors, and working with them directly to sharpen
their influence and deploy it more effectively, you will gain far more leverage
as a cultural leader.

For example, when Lucio Noto created
those new, informal “skip level” staff development opportunities at Mobil, the
rumor mill took notice. People all through the company began to do the same.
These career appraisals became common practice at multiple levels across the
globe. Similarly, when Michael Sabia was CEO of Bell Canada, he started
attending small-group working sessions of “master motivators” at the front
line, and other executives followed suit. They wanted to see for themselves what
he was learning.

Rational
and Emotional Impact

More than 100 years ago, Mary Parker
Follett wrote about integration in leadership and organizational situations.
She contrasted integration with domination (“a victory of one side over the
other”) and compromise (“each side gives up [some of what it wants] in order to
have peace”). Integration comes about when “there is no curtailing of
desire”—both sides in a dispute get all (or nearly all) of what they really
wish for. We have yet to hear a better definition for the kind of integration
that a CEO needs if he or she is to have impact on the culture.

When putting together a business
strategy or a case for action, it’s important to integrate the rational
arguments from top leaders with compelling emotional appeals at more personal
levels. One without the other is unlikely to sustain cultural alignment. In
other words, in addition to a rational business case for change and other
formal mechanisms, it’s important to develop emotional impact through such
forces as peer approval, the support of colleagues, and the admiration of
friends and families.

For most business leaders, a
rationally compelling argument is usually much easier to develop than an
emotionally compelling one. Executives are used to quantitative analysis and
logical reasoning. They understand how to send arguments through
well-established formal channels and programs, and they know how to delegate
assignments within that system. But emotional energy gets its strength from
one’s own intuitive insight and the social support of colleagues. This energy
flows through informal networks and cross-organizational interactions outside
formal channels. The CEO’s role is to ensure integration of the formal and
informal dimensions, so that the emotional energy generated for change is
reinforced by a consistent formal accountability for performance and a
willingness to pay attention to the metrics that indicate results.

Douglas Conant calls this being
“tough-minded on standards but tender-hearted with people.” Early on in his
turnaround challenge at Campbell’s, he realized that he would have to replace
more than 300 of the top 350 people in the company because they lacked the
necessary skills. In discussions and informal conversations, he held firm to
this decision, but also openly acknowledged that those who were being replaced
were the friends, colleagues, and teammates of those who were staying. Those
leaving were treated with respect and given as much help as the company could
afford. “Even through that horrible period,” he later recalled, “our employee
engagement scores went up.”

Eternal
but Focused Vigilance

Your role as a cultural leader
starts on Day One of your appointment as CEO. It will not end until the last
day you hold that office. Indeed, your persistence in emphasizing the right
cultural behavior will continue to be influential after you have left.

Because cultures evolve in informal
ways that are hard to track, they can easily degrade before many people are
even aware something bad is happening. Chief executives in peak-performing
companies almost never let this happen; they work hard to keep an eye on the
critical few behaviors over time. You can either keep promoting the same few
behaviors, as Southwest Airlines did, or, after the first few have taken hold,
pick a few more to model and support.

In many great organizations, a kind
of cultural vigilance baton is passed from each CEO to his or her successor. At
Southwest Airlines, for example, it passed seamlessly from cofounder Herb
Kelleher to incoming CEO James Parker and president Colleen Barrett in 2001,
and then to incoming CEO Gary C. Kelly in 2004. Each new chief executive
is deliberately charged with keeping the company’s fundamental cultural
identity intact (while helping the company evolve to meet new competitive and
market dynamics).

This rich cultural identity is part
of the competitive advantage of leading organizations such as the Mayo Clinic,
Apple, Procter & Gamble, and IBM. When it slips, because people grow
complacent or lose touch, the CEO is expected to step in and reignite the
enthusiasm and vigor that were part of the culture originally—as Conant did at
Campbell’s and as Meg Whitman appears to be doing at Hewlett-Packard.

Things
Only the CEO Can Do

Most chief executives are master
delegators. Some believe, as one chief executive we know puts it, that
successful delegation is the single most important skill that a developing
leader needs. “It is the only way a rising leader can handle increasing
responsibilities, and the best way to develop subordinates.”

For the most part, we agree—except
when it comes to the CEO’s cultural impact. The activities described in this
article should not be assigned to others. Leaders who delegate too much will
lose their opportunity to become role models and energizers for the culture
they want to shape. For example, you should be personally involved in selecting
the new behaviors needed by the company. Your choice should reflect the
company’s strategic and operating priorities, in a way that others throughout
the company can comfortably align with. However, getting down to a few critical
priorities will almost always be a judgment call you need to make, because no
choice will be easy to defend.

Only you can interact with others on
your own behalf. Only you can speak regularly for yourself with people
throughout the company, informally and outside normal channels. When incoming
CEO Jack Rowe launched a turnaround journey at Aetna Inc. in 2000, he kept in
direct personal contact with nearly 100 leaders in multiple levels and
functions. These informal networks not only brought him up to speed on the way
people thought about their work and the practices they followed, but became
viral spreaders of the culture he wanted to evolve.

Because you, as CEO, have the final
word on most strategic and operational decisions, the most critical aspects of
cultural impact—selectivity, simplicity, and targeted persistence—are in your
domain. Moreover, your role as cultural leader is, more likely than not, the
single thing you will be most remembered for. That’s why so many CEOs refer to
culture as their highest priority; it is the primary vehicle for establishing their legacy.